The Long Road to Fez

At the Rissani bus stop, our backpacks are promptly taken from us and stuffed into the underbelly of the bus- a ‘service’ for which we are required to pay a fee. I can man handle my own pack...but at least this person was working and earning money. Everyone is rushing like there is some kind of urgency for the bus to leave. So we get onboard without accessing our packs. All we have with us is our overnight bag from the desert. No music to listen to, no book to read, no pen and paper- just some contact solution and the travel pillow (for which I am truly grateful yet again). Steve is showing symptoms of what would soon develop into a full blown nasty head cold. The bus finally fills up (overcapacity of course) and we were on the road to Fez. This turned out to be an eleven hour bus ride. We didn’t know where the bus would stop or when it would leave a station, so the only two times we dared get off was when the bus driver turned off the engine. Then one of us would get off the bus to stretch or run in to the station to get water while the other guarded our seats. All we ate for this day was bread and marmalade for our breaky in the desert, two cookies each, and half a croissant. I hardly drank water for fear of having to use a bus station bathroom...At the stations, as passengers got on and off the bus, beggars and merchants got on - selling random items or asking for yours...

Eventually, a nicely dressed lady sits in front of us with a rice bag. We soon find out there is no rice in that bag! Chickens! Three live chickens are squished in the bag- she opens it up so they can breath and sqwak. We laughed so hard and I snapped a photo.

Seeing more of the Moroccan country side on the bus ride was great. It is remarkably diverse! In the morning we were in the desert and by the evening we were up in the mountains where there was still snow on the ground! 

We finally make it to Fez, and since being hardened by Marrakech, we put on our big kid faces as we exit the bus terminal and march through the entourage of waiting taxi drivers and in to the Medina.